[PEN-L:11731] Black Male Employment

[Robert Cherry <RobertC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

   I have been working on a paper which looks at black employment prospects.
>From the BLS I found what seems to be an astounding piece of data.  As you
might expect, employment/pop ratios for men have been highly cyclical.  In
the past I had computed this using peak-to-through data:

Year          1973   1975   1979   1982   1989   1992   1995   1996
Black Men     67.6   60.6   63.4   56.0   63.1   59.9   61.7   61.1
White Men     76.5   73.0   75.1   70.7   73.6   71.1   72.0   72.3

1. The black volality is greater than white, especially 1979-89 cycle.
2. There is a secular decline, reflecting the increasing employment problems.

   But what I find most striking is that between 1995 and 1996, the black
employment to population ratio DECLINED!

   I would be interested in any comments on this last finding.  What is
going on in the labor market that would lead to a reduction in black
employment ratios during a boom year like 1996?

Robert Cherry